Judith (Baluet) Marion (abt. 1670 - abt. 1708)

Born about 1670 in Chaunay, Vienne, Poitou-Charentes, France

Wife of Benjamin Marion Sr. — married about 1687 (to about 1708) in Chaunay, Vienne, Poitou, France

Descendants

Died about 1708 at about age 38 in Goose Creek, St. John's Parish, Berkeley County, South Carolina

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Biography

Judith (Baluet) Marion was a Huguenot emigrant (1540-1790).

Judith Marion née Baluet (b. circa 1670 in Poitou, France) was the paternal grandmother of General Francis Marion, American Revolutionary War patriot and hero. She married Benjamin Marion, b: ca. 1665 in Chaunay, Vienne, Poitou-Charentes, France, about 1687 when she was 17 years old. ^[1] The couple were French Calvinist Protestants, known as French Huguenots. They were of upper-middle-class social status as Benjamin was educated and said to have "worthy connections" locally.

The Huguenots were increasingly persecuted for their religious beliefs after 1560; especially after the accession of Roman Catholic King Louis XIV to the throne of France in 1643. In 1685, King Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes (1595), promulgated by his grand-father, King Henri IV, who had adhered to both Catholic and Protestant faiths at different times in his tempestuous life, which had given French Protestants legal tolerance for their beliefs, while retaining Roman Catholicism as France's "official state religion". This violent persecution led Benjamin and Judith (Baluet) Marion to flee France by boat from the Ile de Ré, going first to England, and from there to Charleston, in the English colony of South Carolina. Benjamin Marion demonstrated his social standing by having the funds to purchase a plantation there at Goose Creek, Berkeley County, where there was already a French Huguenot-refugee community.

Benjamin and Judith (Baluet) Marion had 3 children between their arrival in South Carolina in 1690 and the 27 September 1695 "List of Huguenot Immigrants," taken in order to process their naturalization as English subjects.^[2]

1. Gabriel Marion, b: 1691, Goose Creek, Berkeley, South Carolina; m. Esther Cordes; had 5 sons, 2 daughters; d: 1750 in St. John's Parish, Berkeley, South Carolina
2. Esther Marion, b: 1693, Goose Creek, Berkeley, S.C.; m. Henry (de) Gignilliat of Switzerland; had 2 daughters
3. Benjamin Marion II, b: 1695, Goose Creek, Berkeley, S.C.; m. Elizabeth Cater; had 6 sons, 3 daughters; d: February 1778

Judith (Baluet) Marion passed away around 1708 at the family plantation at the head of Goose Creek, Berkeley County, South Carolina. Her husband Benjamin Marion survived her death and remarried to a woman named Marie ("Mary"), whose surname remains Unknown. ^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ Different secondary sources state that the family's native village was called "Chaumé," "Le Chaume" or "Chauné," always with "in Poitou". "Chaunay" and "Chauné" are pronounced the same in French. There is also a district called "Le Chaume," just south of La Rochelle along the coast; it may have been a separate village in the 18th Century. "Chaume" in French means "thatch" as in a "thatched roof" so it is a common word. Chet Snow.
2. ↑ "The Marion Family," article by Charles J. Colcock, in Transaction of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina, 1909, pp. 37 ff.
3. ↑ See preceding Note.

• "The Marion Family," article by Charles J. Colcock, in Transaction of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina, 1909, pp. 37 ff.

Acknowledgements

• WikiTree profile Baluet-1 was created from first-hand information as remembered by Jim Dukes, Saturday, July 26, 2014.